I am subscribed to one of those "NextDoor" sites (like FB for but for specific cities and neighborhoods). Recently someone posted that she'd found a chihuahua and did anyone know the owner. The dog wasn't tagged or chipped. There were lots of posts flying around but no one was found... long story short, the person who found the chihuahua is connected to an animal welfare organization, and today she posted that yesterday, she had the chihuahua neutered and it is almost ready to be adopted. My memory is fuzzy, but I am pretty sure it hasn't even been 5 days since the chihuahua was found.

Is this the right thing to do? Somehow it seems unethical to me to find a dog, put it in your house (so it can't find its way home) and then in a very short time frame, have it neutered. I get the reason (stray pets are a problem, let's make sure those pets don't contribute to the problem), but it seems a little over the top, if for no other reason than the super short timeline.

What do y'all think??

If you're still looking for the owner? You don't do that to someone else's dog.

If you are pretty sure the owner is unfindable and you're planning to keep the dog, and it's legal for you to take that position? Then it's your dog, do as you will.

It does seem like it would be reasonable to allow a bit more time for the owner(s) to show up.

Ok, so it's not just me. You know, my brother used to show dogs and train other people's dogs for dog shows (if you're thinking "Best in Show," yes, exactly like that!) Anyway, you can see where I'm going with that, so when I read about this, I thought oh wow, that could be a problem for some dog owners.

Back to the OP though, I'm wondering if I either missed some info (highly likely) or maybe the original finding of the dog was earlier than I'm remembering (though I don't think so, however)

Also, I already had the impression that the woman who did this is kind of a "neighborhood busybody" and a kind of an overzealous animal protector (for lack of a better descriptor), but now I'm certain! In poking around just now to see if I'd missed some much earlier posts (I hadn't) there was one from Thursday where she wrote something to the effect that even if the owner came forward, she wouldn't return the dog without neutering it first! Wow!!

Of course for pet owners, put a collar and tags on it and maybe get it chipped. But yeah, I think lady is overstepping a bit here...

quote:

Recently someone posted that she'd found a chihuahua and did anyone know the owner.

Wonder if it was this one ...

Our last adoption was a very affectionate stray cat. It wasn't tagged or chipped either, but it was neutered already. We tried to find an owner for about two weeks and then "gave up."

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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

there was one from Thursday where she wrote something to the effect that even if the owner came forward, she wouldn't return the dog without neutering it first! Wow!!

At a minimum, that's civil liability (and an admission! So not much of a trial!) and I'd work to find criminal liability. Vandalism? Destruction of property? Criminal mischief? I'd see what I could come up with.

Quirt, right. Assuming the owner turns up, that is. An additional post said the doggie had ringworm, so now I'm wondering if maybe it was neglected and/or abandoned?

That doesn't excuse the over the top pet rescuer, but maybe it suggests that the owner isn't ever going to show up? Not that I'm making excuses for her.

The whole thing is kind of mind-boggling to me.

Ok more details — the doggie was in the care of another neighbor for two weeks before the pet rescuer got him. So the dog was found approx. 3 weeks before being neutered.

Judging by the number of Chihuahuas I've seen at dog pounds and rescue places, this may be the first time anyone has ever spayed one.

That doesn't seem unreasonable, SK. If the dog was unchipped and had no collar, the owner wasn't putting much effort into making sure the pooch could find its way back to him if he got lost.

We found a young cat in our garage. We kept getting fleeting glances of him for like a week, and finally I donned a jacket and gloves and went after him when he jumped up into the overhang from the inside of the garage. I thought he might be feral, but when I nabbed him he just looked at me and went "Meow" and didn't struggle at all. He'd been in a fight or two and was pathetically scrawny.

This was in pre-internet days, but we tried our best to find his owner by calling police and local shelters. No one claimed him for a couple of weeks; we kept him quarantined in our basement away from our other cats. Our vet was a good egg and said he'd neuter him at no charge and do a feline leukemia test to make it easier to find him a home.

We ended up keeping him. He was a scrawny little thing that Mr wtg named Moose.

WTG, that’s a nice story!

Yeah, given the length of time and the fact that the doggie needed a fair amount of treatment from the vet, it seems reasonable to assume it was abandoned.

I still think that lady is a busy body though!

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Originally posted by Piano*Dad:

quote:

Recently someone posted that she'd found a chihuahua and did anyone know the owner.

Wonder if it was this one ...

If the dog had been abandoned for weeks, then yes, it most certainly is ethical. Most foster/adoption places require it before they will accept the dog for placement.

I'm on our local "next door" neighborhood thing, and we see a lot of lost dog/cat postings. I must admit, they get under my skin. In particular, there isn't a day go by when we hear of another cat that is lost. Turns out the cat is an outdoor or indoor/outdoor cat, and the owner won't keep it inside because the cat "so enjoys" being outside. However, their cat is most likely killing native birds, making other cats, using children's sandboxes as litter boxes and/or being eaten by coyotes. I am not a fan of outdoor cats. Not at all. Ironically, one of the other hot topics on our board is the proliferation of coyotes, and the perception that they are becoming more aggressive. No one seems to see the link between providing free food (their semi-feral cats and their offspring) and the proliferation of coyotes. Everyone wants the dept of wildlife to euthanize the coyotes so they can continue to let their cats out to enjoy themselves.

Not that I feel strongly about it.

Meanwhile, back to your regularly scheduled programming....

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Judging by the number of Chihuahuas I've seen at dog pounds and rescue places, this may be the first time anyone has ever spayed one.

Well, when I think of chihuahuas it doesn't occur to me they get lucky much.